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[BrentG]

Hello,
  Does anyone have any tips for an old farm house with high heat loss.  I have 10 ft ceilings so I think that's part of my issue, but it seems my fan has to run constantly to keep the temp at 72-74.  Exterior walls are not cold to touch and I have all new windows....
 
 I am not sure where to look or start to seal this old place up

[Sloppy_Snood]

If there is a crawl space or basement, the absolute number one place to seal is THE RIM JOISTS! 

[agriffinjd]

Maybe you just need some ceiling fans to push the heat back down off the 10' ceilings?  Once the furnace fan shuts off the heat may be rising and the thermostat kicks back on, all without having really lost a lot of heat to the outside. 

[atvalaska]

constantly to keep the temp at 72-74.......ouch do u live in a salmon smoke house?... 69/70 ...ahhhhh now that feels good.....

[hondaracer2oo4]

Many of us have old homes. Mine is a 220 year old center chimney colonial in New Hampshire. The First area that you need to attack is 'air infiltration'. Most of your home loses its heat through the top(attic). So first step is to get into the attack and seal any and all penetrations from the living space to the attic(cold space). These include wiring, vent stack, bathroom vent, partition top plates if you have them, lighting fixture boxes etc. Seal any larger holes with expanding foam and smaller holes with quality silicone chaulking. After and only after all of your holes are sealed up so that heated air doesn't literally fly right out of your house you need to slow down the heat migrating from an area of warmth(house) to the area of cold(outside). You need to do this by properly insulating your attic. That means that in old homes where the ceiling joists aren't equally spaced you need to use a insulating product that will completely and tightly fill the voids. The best product for this is blown cellulose. Personally I did not want to lose the ability to get into my attic to do work so I filled the joist bays to the top(8 inches of blown cellulose which is about R24) then I rolled R30 fiberglass insulation over the whole attic butted up nice and tight to each other. This allows me to peel back the fiberglass and get to where ever I need to work if that is the case. This gave me an R54 which is under the suggested R60 now in my climate but helped immensely. If you can find a way to insulate the rim joists in your home it will help but the biggest thing you need to do is plug and holes or spots where air is freely being pulled inside the house from the outside around the rim joist. Chaulking and expanding foam work well in this area. I have 8x8 sill beams which means I have about R8 for insulation already at my rim joist, I just sealed any leaks. Lastly walls are the place to go. In old homes they can be very tricky because you need to keep moisture out of the wall by air sealing them when you insulate. If you have any interest in that let me know. I have gotten a pretty good method down for doing that which seems to work very well.

[mlappin]

Ceiling fans can make a huge difference, we don't even have a duct in our bedroom but a ceiling fan set to draw air up and on low keeps it plenty warm. Bedroom is on the south west corner of the house so it does catch a lot of wind as well.

Biggest help we've found after the new windows was new siding with a layer of fan fold then the house wrap underneath the siding.

[oldchenowth]

We are redoing our old farm house a room at a time.  We now are starting the kitchen and insulating the walls and ceiling as we go.  First is roll or bat fiberglas the foil board on the studs and drywall over that.  I would have preferred the spray foam in the walls to kill infiltration, but lack of funds squashed that.  It took an inch of space out of the room but made a huge difference in the floor warmth.  Ceiling is the foil between each joist and 5/8 drywall with roll glass for now and in the spring will get blown in cellulose.  A builder talked me into the foil board, I was a skeptic but he has me convinced now.  I wish I had done it in the two bathrooms we just finished. Live and learn.  I am doing the rim joists next just like Snood

[hondaracer2oo4]

That is the same way that I have been doing my walls. Works very well. The foil faced 1/2 foam board adds another 3.3 r value to the wall, it stops thermal bridging of the wall studs from the cold outside to the warm inside AND it acts as a vapor barrier as well. I foil tape all of the seams and use expanding foam and chaulking to seal the top, bottom and sides of the foam board. This last step is important to stop any air infiltration. Any air making it around the foam board will condense when it hits the cold air causing moisture and rotting issues.

[atvalaska]

don't for get to use some water with your "caned spray foam" as u go 

[hondaracer2oo4]

Water with the canned spray foam?

[BrentG]

Water with the canned spray foam?

My thoughts too

[mlappin]

Get a spray bottle and spray your foam while squirting it in, supposed to expand more and cure faster.

[atvalaska]

Water with the canned spray foam?

My thoughts too

  http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=6995.msg58026#msg58026  bottom of #4

[atvalaska]

Get a spray bottle and spray your foam while squirting it in, supposed to expand more and cure faster.

   I use hot water .... I mist the area 1st then I foam then a really  lite mist on that = bigger  faster stronger ..its polyuahtaren ( I can't spell )  ....uses moister to cure  ie;  instead of the foam having to take it from the air u are helping it get what it needs!

[Farmer85]

I am going through the same thing now. I am to the point of not really knowing what will be the best upgrade to help stop heat loss. I found out my utility company does a home audit and they will meet you and put a negative draft on the inside of your home. This will show you exactly where your problems are the worst. It takes about 3 hours and supposedly when they leave I will know the areas to attack first. It's a $50 fee but they also give you light bulbs to sample in a value of $50. I know I work for another utility company and they also offer a similar program for energy savings. It might be worth checking out or if nothing else build a fan and shroud to do the same thing so you can physically see what areas are in need of attention. They also talk about energy efficient appliances and cost saving in other areas that may or may not be of interest to some.